Abundance Versus Scarcity Mentality
On his book of The 7 Habit of Highly Effective People, Stephen R Covey explain how abundance mindset is a essential character trait for win/win situation, the paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody. Stephen says-;
Most people are deeply scripted in what I call the Scarcity Mentality. They see life as having only so much, as though there were only one pie out there. And if someone were to get a big piece of the pie, it would mean less for everybody else. The Scarcity Mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life.
Abundance mentality is when a person thinks that life is full of many resources enough for everyone whereas Scarcity mentality is when a person thinks that life has limited resources and if someone get more others are losing. These two mindsets shapes our life as they influence our decision making, presented with same opportunity, a person with abundance mindset can decide differently from a person with scarcity mindset. With a glass filled half, a person with abundance mentality will see a half full glass while a person with scarcity mentality will see a half empty glass.
People with abundance mentality acknowledge and are genuinely happy for other people’s successes, in business they seek for partnership that create win/win, in workspace they focus on team wins rather than individual wins. Leaders with abundance mentality create a culture of collaboration, teamwork and innovation, an environment where its okay to make a mistake, in family they are happy when one family member succeed on something more than them.
People with scarcity mentality on the other hand, when someone succeed in business or in workplace, its means for them they have lost, something has been reduced in the pool of resources, they have left with few resources and its bad for them. They focus much on what is achieved by other person rather than what could be out there for them to achieve. For them, any engagement result to either win/lose or lose/win and its obvious they won’t want to be in a lose side, no one would. Leaders with scarcity mentality create politics working environment, people fear to make mistakes and hence no innovation.
Abundance Mentality — There is a lot enough for everyone
Scarcity Mentality — There are limited resources
Abundance Mentality — We can all achieve more together
Scarcity Mentality — Either of us can achieve more
Abundance Mentality — Easy to share recognition, credit, power etc
Scarcity Mentality — Difficult in sharing recognition, credit, power etc
Abundance Mentality — Recognizes unlimited possibilities and create third alternatives
Scarcity Mentality — Believe there are limited possibilities and only two alternatives.
Abundance Mentality — They are genuinely happy for other people’s success
Scarcity Mentality — They are eating their hearts out for other people’s success
The list can go on.
I reality, there is enough for everyone, enough love, enough joy, enough opportunities for all of us. With scarcity mentality people deny themselves chances to get most in life.
How to develop an abundance mentality
Start giving : Help someone to achieve something in life, be it in a workplace, family or in a community. You can develop an abundance mentality through giving back to others as you will be creating a habit of sharing.
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want’’ By Zig Ziglar
Visualize your potential : Start visualizing what things you can be in life, what you can achieve. This will create a mindset of seeing the wins of others not your lost as knowing your strengths and developing confidence makes you value yourself and hence value others. By valuing yourself and others, you will always look for win/win situations, be happy for other people’s success and your happiness will not depend on other people’s but yourself.
Know your weaknesses : Knowing your weaknesses will help you to know what areas you need to improve, also what areas you need to collaborate with others so that you can get the best outcomes. Through collaboration you receive and give and that create a mindset that you can all achieve together.
Always find something to praise people : Create a habit of praising people when they do something good, if you are a leader, when a team member achieve something, praise them, recognize their achievements, but it should be a genuine feedback. Starting with something small like praising will create a mindset to see its okay for others to win, and in time you will find it okay to share power, even profits in business.
No one would want to work with someone who thinks of themselves, always want to win and do not care if its for the cost of others, with abundance mentality, one attracts opportunities in different areas of life, attracts partnerships in business, in workspace creates collaborations and get the best of people on teamwork. In relationship giving habit get reciprocated. If we all could have or seek to develop an abundance mentality, we could be creating a community of happy people.
